Politics Corner December 3rd

 

photo mine (beware of Harlan)

The Louisiana State Legislature unanimously voted to reform the states draconian three-strikes law and the governor signed the reform. I'm not sure how this is even possible but the Louisiana Supreme Court decided that the other two branches don't matter at all. It's hard to argue with legislative intent when the vote was unanimous in this hyper-political time. There is a work around though. The ruling leaves it open for defense lawyers to appeal to DAs. The DAs can negotiate, refuse, or simply let it pass. The problem is that by fixing what the Supreme Court saw as a constitutional error they created a new system that specifically goes against the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution. Whether you're stuck with a sentence of life without parole or set free after 16 years of time served is entirely up to what DA your case is in front of. [ProPublica/Verite]

via ProPublica

Remember Uvalde? It seems that everyone but the Department of Public Safety remembers. They began an investigation into what went wrong a year and a half ago. They finished their investigation in February and it seems to have slipped their mind that they promised to release the results once they were finished. A Texas district court judge has ruled that DPS must satisfy 28 records requests from news agencies. There must be something that the DPS wants to hide so of course they'll appeal. [Texas Tribune]

via Texas Tribune

Also in Texas, I don't think they've gotten around to appropriating money to remove the illegal barrier in the Rio Grande but they did send a bill totaling $1.54 billion for new barriers to Gov. Abbott who is drooling over that. In other questionably legal appropriations, they sent $40 million to have state troopers patrol Colony Ridge outside of Houston. [Texas Tribune]

via Texas Tribune

Yesterday we had a Russian documentary (Queendom) which is worth a look back if you missed it. Today we're looking at some Americans who are fighting back against baseless bigotry with 1946. The title is a reference to how the word homosexual did not exist in the Bible until a mistranslation in 1946. The movie goes deeper than that both in covering misinterpretations of other verses but more importantly the effect this has had on people's lives. [Guardian]

Political discussion welcome